After the failure of The Flash, which is the latest DCEU film to flop hard in theaters, fans of the ill-fated cinematic franchise have already begun the post-mortem for what went wrong. That includes mourning the never-released solo film that was promised years ago centered around one of the Justice League’s most overlooked heroes, Cyborg.
As one DCEU fan on the r/DC_Cinematic subreddit pointed out, the Frankenstein’s monster-like origin story of Ray Fischer’s Cyborg — as portrayed in 2021’s Zack Snyder’s Justice League — may have been the best conceived of any hero in the entire franchise.
I loved ZSJL when it came out and can attest the character’s portrayal was so much more in-depth than the previous version of the film, the Joss Whedon-helmed and much-maligned 2017 effort Justice League.
If only we could go back in time and course-correct the franchise so that Snyder’s original vision came to theaters six years ago. Maybe then Cyborg’s presence would have set up a box office draw for his own solo movie instead of the laughing stock he was in Whedon’s version of the film.
The sheer fantasy fulfillment aspect of a teenager having near-unlimited computer-hacking abilities for the world’s technology systems seems like a slam dunk with modern sensibilities.
Clearly, the character has resonated with a lot of fans over time, now that the original version of the film has come to light.
In case you weren’t already aware, the reshoots for Justice League did much to damage Fisher’s relationship with Warner Bros., to the point that the actor accused Whedon of behaving abusively on set. Fisher also accused the studio of being complicit in — and even covering up the deplorable behavior. After that, the previously announced Cyborg film was canceled by WB following Justice League flopping in theaters, and Fisher quit the franchise.